Here I will list what I consider to be my best works and if I ever do one better I will add that one too. But enjoy (or not)
This work was my poetry analasis it is based on the poems Dulce et Decorum est., who's for the game and The General I will also offer
links to the original poetry so it can be read as well
The first world war is arguably one of the most significant events in the 20th century, it seperated Europe into two unstopable forces, the triple entente and the triple alliance. All parties involved in the war used propoganda to enlist troops, for example poetry. However when troops got to the front, they found themselves in trenches. These trenches were a basis of many poems as they were foul places to live.
Who's for the game by Jessie Pope was a poem used as propoganda. She was a journalist and wrote many poems as propoganda but her most famous and most memorable one is who's for the game. She however did not really know what the war was like. In this poem Pope makes the war sound like a game, almos like rugby. Pope encourages the young men to join 'the red crashing game of a fight'. She also makes them feel a sense of patriotism and duty. It makes it seem like the country is looking for the reader, 'it's looking and calling for you' showing how the readers country needs them. Pope also makes it seem like everyone who doesnt go is a coward and not a real man. She uses retorical questions to convince people for example 'Who'll give his country a hand?' to show people that they need to help the country or 'Who would much rather come back with a crutch than lie low and be out of the fun?' showing how war is fun and like a game, you won't get hurt really badly and lieing low really means be a coward. Dulce et Decorum est was a poem about how bad the trenches were and it was written by Wilfred Owen. The title is from an old saying 'Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori' which means that it is sweet and noble to die for ones country. However Owen talks about how it is infact a lie. The poem's tone is tired at the start. Owen uses a simile to describe the young men, 'like old beggars under sacks' and they are described as sick as they walk away from the front line. The second stanza shows urgency as the men rush to put on their gas masks, but one man can't do it in time. 'As under a green sea I saw him drowning' showing how the gas kills the man brutally. Owen shows how he feels sorry for the man as he dies but knows he is powerless to help. In one stanza to make it memberable he says how he remembers it 'in all my dreams' and then 'he plunges at me guttering, choking, drowning'. Using enumeration to describe his actions. In the 4th stanza he is talking to people back home, he starts saying 'If in some dreams you too could pace'. Meaning that he is talking to people back in England and saying that they had no idea what war was really like. In a previous draft he had said it was to Jessie Pope but then changed it. Then Owen shows them what it was like how the man's death was not honourable but just a wasted life. He goes on to talk about how the 'old lie' is not true. The General by Seigfried Sassoon is also about the horrors of war. However it is told in a more sing song way almost like a nurery rhyme. It is short and memerable. It talks about a General who greets his men on their way to the line, he talks in a very happy and cheerful way to the soldiers going to the front. The general of course is walking away from the line. Later it says 'Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ’em dead' showing how the soldiers he saw on the way are dead, probably by a push, then Sasson says 'and were cursing his staff for incompetent swine' showing how the soldiers blamed the general who greeted them for all of the soldiers deaths. Sasson then talks about two soldiers in particular, however they have very common names, Harry and Jack. They signify every young man who went to war. They seem to think that the General is 'a cheery old card' but the ending of Sassons poem really shows what happend. Sasson says in a one line stanza 'But he did for them both by his plan of attack', showing how the General didn't really care about the men at all, he thought of them as toy soldiers like in a game, throwing them at the enemy and if they die it didn't really matter. It also says that the General's plans weren't that great if he kept on getting countless young men killed. In conclusion some of the poetry in world war 1 was meant as propoganda while the other was about the horrors of war. However the people who wrote propoganda poems, such as Jessie Pope, probably did not really know what was going on in the war. Soldiers had alot of spare time in the trenches so many probably tried to write poetry but only some of them really became popular. These poems were also sometimes about commanding officers or propoganda writers and telling them that they cant keep sending so many people to their untimly ends. The General was my faviourite poem as it is written in a dancing almost nursery rhyme style but really tells the story of how horrific the Generals were in world war 1 this gives it a sinister feeling.
This work was my poetry analasis it is based on the poems Dulce et Decorum est., who's for the game and The General I will also offer
links to the original poetry so it can be read as well
The first world war is arguably one of the most significant events in the 20th century, it seperated Europe into two unstopable forces, the triple entente and the triple alliance. All parties involved in the war used propoganda to enlist troops, for example poetry. However when troops got to the front, they found themselves in trenches. These trenches were a basis of many poems as they were foul places to live.
Who's for the game by Jessie Pope was a poem used as propoganda. She was a journalist and wrote many poems as propoganda but her most famous and most memorable one is who's for the game. She however did not really know what the war was like. In this poem Pope makes the war sound like a game, almos like rugby. Pope encourages the young men to join 'the red crashing game of a fight'. She also makes them feel a sense of patriotism and duty. It makes it seem like the country is looking for the reader, 'it's looking and calling for you' showing how the readers country needs them. Pope also makes it seem like everyone who doesnt go is a coward and not a real man. She uses retorical questions to convince people for example 'Who'll give his country a hand?' to show people that they need to help the country or 'Who would much rather come back with a crutch than lie low and be out of the fun?' showing how war is fun and like a game, you won't get hurt really badly and lieing low really means be a coward. Dulce et Decorum est was a poem about how bad the trenches were and it was written by Wilfred Owen. The title is from an old saying 'Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori' which means that it is sweet and noble to die for ones country. However Owen talks about how it is infact a lie. The poem's tone is tired at the start. Owen uses a simile to describe the young men, 'like old beggars under sacks' and they are described as sick as they walk away from the front line. The second stanza shows urgency as the men rush to put on their gas masks, but one man can't do it in time. 'As under a green sea I saw him drowning' showing how the gas kills the man brutally. Owen shows how he feels sorry for the man as he dies but knows he is powerless to help. In one stanza to make it memberable he says how he remembers it 'in all my dreams' and then 'he plunges at me guttering, choking, drowning'. Using enumeration to describe his actions. In the 4th stanza he is talking to people back home, he starts saying 'If in some dreams you too could pace'. Meaning that he is talking to people back in England and saying that they had no idea what war was really like. In a previous draft he had said it was to Jessie Pope but then changed it. Then Owen shows them what it was like how the man's death was not honourable but just a wasted life. He goes on to talk about how the 'old lie' is not true. The General by Seigfried Sassoon is also about the horrors of war. However it is told in a more sing song way almost like a nurery rhyme. It is short and memerable. It talks about a General who greets his men on their way to the line, he talks in a very happy and cheerful way to the soldiers going to the front. The general of course is walking away from the line. Later it says 'Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ’em dead' showing how the soldiers he saw on the way are dead, probably by a push, then Sasson says 'and were cursing his staff for incompetent swine' showing how the soldiers blamed the general who greeted them for all of the soldiers deaths. Sasson then talks about two soldiers in particular, however they have very common names, Harry and Jack. They signify every young man who went to war. They seem to think that the General is 'a cheery old card' but the ending of Sassons poem really shows what happend. Sasson says in a one line stanza 'But he did for them both by his plan of attack', showing how the General didn't really care about the men at all, he thought of them as toy soldiers like in a game, throwing them at the enemy and if they die it didn't really matter. It also says that the General's plans weren't that great if he kept on getting countless young men killed. In conclusion some of the poetry in world war 1 was meant as propoganda while the other was about the horrors of war. However the people who wrote propoganda poems, such as Jessie Pope, probably did not really know what was going on in the war. Soldiers had alot of spare time in the trenches so many probably tried to write poetry but only some of them really became popular. These poems were also sometimes about commanding officers or propoganda writers and telling them that they cant keep sending so many people to their untimly ends. The General was my faviourite poem as it is written in a dancing almost nursery rhyme style but really tells the story of how horrific the Generals were in world war 1 this gives it a sinister feeling.
Here it is in word format
The General
Dulce et Decorum est.
Who's for the Game